


remember, spring swaps snow for leaves

by k_tron



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Snowball Fight, as a way to explore relationships that might be broken but also might be getting better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:49:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28826250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/k_tron/pseuds/k_tron
Summary: Lucretia gets roped into a snowball fight, which leads to a conversation with Taako.
Relationships: The Director | Lucretia & Everyone, The Director | Lucretia & Taako
Comments: 12
Kudos: 20





	remember, spring swaps snow for leaves

The first time it snows after Story and Song, Lucretia nearly misses it.

She is bundled in blankets and sitting on the floor, trying to convince herself it’s worth it to pick up a pen again. It’s a battle she’s fought many times over the past few months. There wasn’t much time for writing as Madame Director, and after Fisher projected everything she’d written into the universe, after everyone heard how she broke her family apart to keep them together – well, it hasn’t felt like she has much more to say after that.

It tugs at her sometimes, though. The feeling she’s had all her life, that things are only real – that they only _matter_ – once they’re written down. It plucks at her fingers until she is sitting with her back to the couch and her fingers clenched around her notebook, one part of her brain begging the other to _please let it go for long enough to feel better._

It’s not a pleasant feeling, but is expected. So she tries to weather it with as much dignity as possible while she digs her fingers into the back of her neck.

And then is suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door.

Lucretia startles, the pen dropping from her fingers, just as there’s another knock. A bang, really. Forceful and demanding. Which can only mean –

“Lucretia! Madame Director! Whatever your name is!” There is a stomping sound and the muffled slap of a gloved hand, and Lucretia hears Magnus say, “What? I’m trying to be normal –” before another knock, this one sharp and staccatoed. 

“Luce! Babe! Where you at?” It’s Lup’s voice this time, threaded with warmth. Lucretia tucks her blanket further around herself as she stands up and walks hesitantly toward the door. As she gets closer, she hears Magnus’s voice in what she’s sure he thinks is a whisper say, “We just have to get her to open the door, that’s all –”

And then, most conniving of all, there comes a muffled, “Go on,” and Angus’s voice floats through the wood. “Ma’am? It’s snowing! And I – as just a little boy – would love to experience the first post-apocalypse snowfall with my family!”

Lucretia snorts, now close enough to lean her head against the door. She can picture the giant thumbs up Magnus is giving the boy detective, can see Lup’s shit-eating grin without having to look at it. It’s not hard to imagine people’s faces when you’ve known them for more than 100 years.

But if Lup is there, that means Taako certainly will be, too. Which is… complicated.

So Lucretia sighs, tucks the blanket more securely around her shoulders, and opens the door as regally as she can to tell them she won’t be able to go anywhere today. Too much paperwork, don’t they know the whole Bureau she created fell apart only a few months ago?

Only to be immediately pulled off balance as Magnus grabs her wrist and tugs her out onto the porch.

“MAGNUS,” he yells, and Angus’s face is a grinning blur as Lucretia stumbles to a halt.

“What –”

But Lup’s hands are tugging the blanket off her shoulders and shoving a parka into her hands. “Not that I don’t love the cozy cape look, babe,” she says, ignoring Lucretia’s bemused protest as she guides an arm into the coat, “but that is nowhere close to appropriate snowball fight attire.”

“Always be prepared!” Angus chirps, and beams as Lup holds a hand out for a high five.

“Exactly, little dude.” She tugs on the puffed up sleeves, gives Lucretia a brushing pat on the shoulders. “There. Ready for war.”

Lup pulls back and looks Lucretia in the face, smiling. Lucretia can’t help but smile back, but… “You don’t have to do this, you know,” she says softly.

Lup only laughs. And there’s something in that answer that settles Lucretia’s breathing. Maybe, just maybe, it _is_ ridiculous to think her friends are only pulling her in out of obligation.

So she follows Lup, who is tracking behind Magnus and whooping as she shoots flame into the falling snow. It steams around her. The field is one Lucretia knows well – just across the street, a popular spot for snowball fights and sledding. They pass Carey and Killian building a snow fort that looks like it could survive the apocalypse, and they both wave. 

The small, huddled group in the center of the field slowly coalesces into a gathering of real people. Kravitz seems to be giving a mild lecture to Barry, who looks sheepish. Taako is tucked against Kravitz’s arm and inspecting his glove. He looks up as Lup approaches and sticks his tongue out at her.

“So, teams?” Magnus asks, cutting Kravitz off as Lup sticks her tongue back. Angus darts over to Taako’s side and Taako tugs his hat off.

“Dibs opposite boychik,” Taako says.

Angus frowns and puts his hands on his hips instead of making a swipe for his hat. “Not fair, sir, you know I’m not as tall as you.”

“Deal with it.” Taako gives a quick scan of the group, and Lucretia feels the moment his eyes pass over her like a hot poker. “I’ll take anyone except Barold.”

Barry makes an offended sound and Angus takes the opportunity to tug his hat back. He shoves it on his head, where it perches uncomfortably on his curls. “We should divide by skill. So it’s the most even, and everyone gets the best shot.”

Everyone looks at Angus for a moment, and then Magnus says, “I heard free-for-all. Did you hear free-for-all?”

“I heard free-for-all,” Lup echoes, grinning. Somehow she already has a perfectly packed snowball in her hands. “Which means –”

“START!” Magnus yells, and then chaos erupts.

The group scatters like a bomb has gone off, diving in opposite directions and flinging snow everywhere. It is only years of finely honed reaction that makes Lucretia jump back in time to avoid a snowball in the face, thrown by nobody knows who. The pandemonium feels almost like movie nights on the Starblaster – something she hasn’t experienced in years.

Well, she might as well try it.

Lucretia manages to fire off three snowballs before she loses all sense of direction, snow flying in her face and shouts coming from all around her. She hears Magnus yell, “INCOMING,” and ducks down, barely dodging as he sprints toward Barry with a mountain of snow in his hands.

And that’s her cue to get out of here.

She stumbles behind a tree, breathless and laughing and glancing over her shoulder to make sure she has cover. Nobody sees. She is safe for a moment, safe enough to catch her breath and reset and – 

Someone else had the same idea. 

Taako stares, his shoulder barely an inch from hers. His face is blank. Lucretia swallows.

It’s not that she hasn’t seen him in the past few months. He’s around. Lup insists on family dinners, stubborn as always, and Lucretia usually sips her wine and shoots uncomfortable glances to where Taako is pointedly ignoring her from across the room until she can beg off and leave without being rude. 

But she hasn’t seen him up close, and she’d forgotten.

The hairline scar on his eyebrow is just the same, a tiny break from where he tipped into the kitchen cabinet the night they drank too much wine and he finally showed her his Umbrella lip sync. They were both laughing too much to care about the frankly terrifying amount of blood, until Merle walked in. “Huh,” he said, and Taako and Lucretia barely glanced at each other before dissolving into giggles again.

He’s wearing new earrings, poking out from under the bundle of his braid and winter hat, but she recognizes one: a dangling, lopsided star threaded and hanging down. It was a gift from Magnus in Cycle 52, when he was trying to find ways to expand what he learned at the Conservatory. Lucretia still has the moon necklace he made her – somewhat ironic now, she supposes.

Taako looks different. Tired, the bags under his eyes more pronounced. Wonderland stole something from him and, even though he has years of memories filling him now, he didn’t get everything back. _They took it from me, too_ , she wants to say – she would say, if the words didn’t get stuck in her throat every time she’s around him. _I still see you the way I used to_.

But maybe that’s the problem. 

She barely has a moment to look at him before his face changes, back to the one she knew so well on the Starblaster, his glamor pulled up like a shield.

Her heart pounds in her throat. “I’ll – I’ll just go,” she says, and if it sounds like she’s choking, she doesn’t think he’ll tell anyone. His face is so familiar and he’s _right there_ , one of the only six people in the universe who really knows her. He’s close enough to touch, and also so far away there could be a galaxy between them, and even though it’s been months and years and she made the only choice she could, it still _hurts_.

She turns away, about to duck out from behind her cover and just go home, when there is a spray of snow right in front of her face.

“Shit!” Taako yelps, and then his hands are pulling her down into a crouch, tugging her back behind the shelter. “Lup, we said no magic!”

“All’s fair in snow and war!” Lup’s gleeful voice comes back. Barely a second later, there is a massive thump as another veritable truck of snow hits the tree.

“You can’t hide forever! Fight, come on!” Magnus yells.

Without thinking about it, Lucretia sticks her hands out in front of her – she needs focus to cast, she always has – only to pull up short when she realizes Taako is watching her.

“You’re cheating,” he says.

She could deny it, but… “Yes.”

“Like in Cycle 63.”

She tries not to let his response show on her face – the first time in months he’s shown any interest in a conversation, any acknowledgement of the life they used to have together. It shouldn’t surprise her how quickly he understood – he has always been brilliant. “Yes.”

Taako makes a considering noise. He has stopped looking at her, his gaze fixed instead on the tree right over her shoulder. But his eyes look calculating. Like he’s doing math in his head.

For a moment, Lucretia considers brushing the moment away. She could – if she just continued her spell, or stuck her head out to get hit by a snowball, she would be rid of this discomfort. But her arms are still outstretched, and she has become so much braver since their days on the Starblaster. It seems a shame to let that go now, when it matters most. So she squares her shoulders and says, “It would work better with two people, you know.”

Taako’s eyes flash to hers, just briefly – she catches an instant of shock before it slides into the resentment she expects – and then he rolls his eyes. “You sure know how to pick your moments, don’t you, Madame Director,” he mutters. She doesn’t move. Her shoulders are getting sore, her fingers tingling. But then it feels like a balloon is inflating in her chest as Taako sighs and says, “Yeah, whatever. Let’s get these chucklefucks.”

It is war, and it is just like it used to be.

Taako darts out from behind the tree, yelling, “Catch me now, idiots!” and performs the most impressive aerial flip he’s done since Refuge – he’s been practicing, not that he would ever admit it – as snowballs come flying at his head. Not a single one hits. He is still cackling as he drops into a Fantasy Elvis slide behind a bush, snow spraying up behind him.

Lucretia doesn’t waste a moment. She spins her wrists in a quick circle to loosen them up, then darts a glance out from the tree. And she casts.

It’s not a complicated spell. It’s just that she and Taako learned in Cycle 63 – a world of angry fire creatures without a lick of subtlety, not-so-affectionately nicknamed Flamethrowers – that sometimes a sneak attack that leads to a big drop of water really is the best move. So Lucretia casts Control Water and watches as a 30 foot cube of snow floats over Lup, Magnus, and Barry’s heads. 

Lup shouts, “Oh _shi –”_

And then the pile drops.

Angus’s laugh peals like a bell in the suddenly silent field. Taako’s head pops up from behind the bush. His voice echoes as he calls, “Did we get ‘em?”

“Done and done,” Lucretia says.

Angus takes an uncertain step toward the snow pile. “Do we need to help them up?”

Lucretia shakes her head at the same time Taako says, “If I know my sister –” and then is cut off by a shattering boom as snow flies from where the crew is buried.

It is Lup, so what ends up flurried against Lucretia’s face is a soft blanket of perfectly spell-shaped snow instead of the avalanche it could be. And it is Lup, so she emerges from the blizzard with hands on fire and a wounded look on her face, shouting, “Et tu, Fantasy Brute?”

Lucretia locks eyes with Taako behind Lup’s back, and he gives her an eye roll before ducking down to pack a snowball. Magnus is yelling, Barry is spluttering, and Lup is channeling power into a now-living snowman that is terrifying in its implications.

But Lucretia keeps her eyes on Taako as he transmutes snowballs into tiny snow missiles, then sharks, then miniature frozen versions of the Starblaster. He rolled his eyes at her. He worked with her to get something done – something fun, something that didn’t matter.

As the snow melts in Lucretia’s collar and slides cool down her neck, it feels a little bit like hope.

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this for a prompt list on tumblr ("first snow") and then promptly forgot about it. but then I came back a couple months later and actually liked it a good bit, so here we are! will I ever stop thinking about these two? probably not
> 
> let me know what you think! I'm also on tumblr @[kimbertsurprise](https://kimbertsurprise.tumblr.com/) if you want to say hi


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